Page 88 of Locked In Ice

So you’ll get the same end they do.

“I think I made an enemy,” Lane said as he read the texts.

She shook her head.“Lane…”

“FBI!”A voice blasted.A vaguely familiar voice.She looked up to see FBI Special Agent Tameka Bryant and her partner Pierce Wayne pushing through the crowd.Tameka’s dark eyes zoomed in on Ophelia.The Feds hurried forward.

“One damn day,” Pierce groused when they closed in.“And you two are already covered in blood?What in the hell happened here tonight?”

Ophelia spared a glance for the nearby catering truck.Her heart raced too fast, and her grip on the phone had turned sweaty.“Attempted murder.”

“That’s a whole lot of blood on the tux, my man,” Pierce told Lane.

“I am aware.”Lane’s flat response.

“Lane saved the vic’s life.”But Ophelia knew that hadn’t been what the perp sending the texts wanted.The man hadwantedfor Lane to finish off Gerald.Finish him off—or, hell, just stand there and let Gerald die.

But Lane hadn’t.

And now the killer seemed to be turning his fury onto Lane.

She pushed the phone toward the Feds.“Really gonna need you to find out who sent these texts, ASAP.”The Feds should be able to do it.

“Why?”Pierce asked.

But Tameka was already scanning through the texts.“Damn,” she said.

“Because Gerald Baldwin’s attacker is the one who sent the messages,” Lane told him.“And it seems like he might be planning to come for me next.”He shrugged.

Shrugged?

“So you can stop him,” Lane continued in his emotionless voice.A voice that perfectly matched his expressionless face.“Or I can.”

***

“No.”Ophelia slammed the front door shut.“This isn’t happening.”She dropped her clutch on the nearby table and tossed her high heels beside the door.

Lane quirked a brow and stared at her.His tux had been taken as evidence—mostly because it had been so blood stained.He’d been interviewed by the cops and the Feds, and it was close to two a.m.

He and Ophelia should probably have been exhausted.

Instead, she seemed to burn with energy.

He wore sweats and a t-shirt that the Feds had given him.Borrowed sneakers because the Feds had taken Lane’s shoes, too.Getting stripped by the Feds had not been on his bingo card for the night.

As far as finding a nearly dead man in a freezer?Not on the card, either.

“I’m the one who taunts killers.”She bent down to pick up Velma.The cat had immediately rushed out of the dark to rub against Ophelia.Ophelia stroked her cat, and Velma slid her head against Ophelia’s cheek.“You don’t get to throw out challenges to them.That is my job.”She spun to fully glare at him.“Mine.”

He just stared at her.Her words were barely registering because she just seemed so gorgeous to him.In fact, he’d pretty much missed everything she’d said, except for the last bit.

Mine.

Lane nodded.

“Good.”She rubbed her fingers over Velma’s back.“Glad we got that settled.”With gentle care, she put her cat back on the floor.“I’ll challenge the killer.You won’t.”Ophelia pivoted sharply and began striding to her room.

He caught her arm and whirled her right back toward him.

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